THE TYPE II, Model A, Machine Pistol patented by Kijiro Nambu in 1935.
Rejected by the Army but used by the Imperial Naval Marines in the
Sino-Japanese War and Shanghai invasion. A 50 round cartridge magazine
extended from the pistol grip. The projection at the bottom of the
magazine was a latch used to lock the weapon in a vehicle mount.

After
World War I, new submachine gun [machine pistol] designs were appearing
in the world markets. The importance of this new infantry weapon was
being created by inventors and industrial promoters to the ruling
military establishments in many countries. Its significance in a post
world war era was being underestimated and lacking in priorities.
Although Japan was plagued with wars, the Military High Command was not
aggressive in their strategy for a rapid fire pistol even though they
had been experiencing positive results with their machine gun
activities.

In the late 1920’s, both the Japanese Army and Navy increased their
attention for use of such ordnance. Through the early 1930’s there was a
limited amount of importations of foreign machine pistols for research
and testing by the services. One model, which showed favoritism, was the
Schweizerischi Industrie Gesellschaft [SIG] MODEL 1920 in 7.63mm
caliber. Some were purchased for the Army and equipped with a barrel
shroud attachment for bayonets. They were eventually used on the eastern
fronts. The Navy issued some to their Marine units.

In the late 1920’s, both the Japanese Army and Navy increased their
attention for use of such ordnance. Through the early 1930’s there was a
limited amount of importations of foreign machine pistols for research
and testing by the services. One model, which showed favoritism, was the
Schweizerischi Industrie Gesellschaft [SIG] MODEL 1920 in 7.63mm
caliber. Some were purchased for the Army and equipped with a barrel
shroud attachment for bayonets. They were eventually used on the eastern
fronts. The Navy issued some to their Marine units.

ithout any command organization for need or assignment of such weapons
the Japanese military government maintained a passive attitude toward
this type of ordnance thusly funding was of minimum concern and mostly
allocated for foreign weapon evaluation. There was very little allotment
for development of such weapons by the military arsenal systems. This
passive attitude would eventually play a major role in Japan’s military
ordnance strategy. It did in fact force civilian weapon producers to
finance and develop their own machine pistols and market them to Japan’s
military, and at the same time, present them on the world market to
recover development costs.

The Navy in fact did not have a machine pistol as a standard for use
before or during World War II, but only utilized what foreign weapons
they had captured during conquests and a small amount produced and
supplied by the Army.

One
of the first civilian machine pistols was developed by Kijiro Nambu and
presented through his company, Nambu-Ju Seizosho K.K., in 1934. [This
same year his company received a design award for an automatic pistol,
which later would be adopted as Type 94 pistol]. The machine pistol
would be the first of three in a series of SIG/Bergman patterns. It was
offered in the Japanese standard 8mm bottleneck cartridge. Designated
Type I, [Note their use of Roman numerals], it was offered as Model A in
300 rounds per minute cyclic rate and Model B at 600 r.p.m. Utilizing a
50 round capacity magazine, it measured 27.2 inches in length and had a
weight of 7.1 pounds. The barrel was surrounded in a tubular jacket with
cooling openings while the wood stock was attached in a variety of
options to accommodate fixed and folding styles. A unique design of the
weapon was the use of a high capacity curved cartridge magazine that
extended from inside the pistol grip. World designers would not utilize
this feature for nearly 2 decades when Czechoslovakia and Israel
incorporated it into their machine pistol applications.

Tested in 1936 and 1937, the Army rejected the weapon as unreliable, but
cited that they might reconsider if further modifications and improvements
were made.

The second in the series had several redesign features and was
designated Type II, Model A. Kijiro Nambu, company president, applied for
its patent on September 22 and December 19, 1934. Patents were issued in
July and October of 1935.

It was tested initially in June 1937 but had numerous malfunctions and
was rejected by the Government. In August of 1937, the Cavalry School
again tested the weapon, but they recommended against it stating
improvements were needed in both construction and operation, even though
the Army did use a small quantity in 1937/38 during the Shanghai conflict.
The Navy also was furnished “samples” for their combat maneuvers. Without
the encouragement from its own government, the company turned to world
markets to sell the gun and indicating it was being used by their
military. In January 1936, the British military had shown an interest in
the weapon and solicited comments from its Armory Department. They
returned comments in a memo on 29 February 1936 and agreed to purchase one
sample and 1000 rounds of ammunition for testing and evaluation. A later
communication from the Ambassador in Tokyo on 7 March 1938 however,
indicated the weapon was no longer being manufactured and samples were not
available.

A major setback for the manufacturer was offering the gun on the world
market in their 8mm bottleneck cartridge, as it was used only by the
Japanese and they had no experience with use of the test calibers.

Without any international sales, and rejection by their military,
further action was halted in favor of a substantially new and less complex
design by the Nambu firm. Based on some of the features of the original
Type I weapon, they presented the Type III Model A Machine Pistol to the
Government in 1939. After considerable testing by various services it was
modified and designated Type III model B. The Government accepted the gun.
Adopted by the Army for production and distribution, its official
designation was Type 100 Machine Pistol.

In
mid 1944, government orders were issued for an additional machine pistol of
simpler design that could be cheaply built to supplement the existing Type 100
weapon production. The Nambu firm who had merged and was renamed as Chuo Kogyo
K.K., received some government funding to resurrect the Type II weapon
development project in an effort to refine it into an acceptable gun in the
shortest period of time.

It
continued to retain the recoil spring, and buffer features. The bolt-retracting
unit as an assembly was maintained and the magazine protruded from the bottom of
the gun. The lumber was a stock, which extended from the shoulder rest point
along the entire length of the gun and stopped just short of the barrel muzzle.
It was hollowed out to form a guard for the trigger. A separated sectioned
receiver was attached to the stock to serve as the base for the action assembly.
Using the standard 8mm pistol cartridge, it operated at a cyclic rate of 600
r.p.m. . The selective fire weapon was 25.25 inches in length overall and a
barrel length of 9 inches. Its weight was 7.75 pounds with a fully loaded
magazine. The gun also contained a provision for bayonet attachment with an
alternate feature on the front end of the stock, that incorporated a metal cap
and lugs for fixed mounting application.

The basic advantage of the weapon was its shortness as noted in the overhang of
the buffer section. It also allowed use of minimum size bolt of less weight. The
disadvantage was the expense to manufacture because of the forming and machining
operations required. Its 1944 debut was too late in the war and only a small
quantity were produced, the highest serial number observed being number 9.

Type II Model B

TYPE II, model B in prototype as a
selective fire weapon. The Allies in World War II dubbed it BULLPUP. The
stock front end is capped with a metal plate and lugs for fixed mounting.

AUTHOR
FOOTNOTE.
The original nomenclature for the automatic weapon of pistol cartridge
design was referred to by the Japanese as “rapid fire pistol”. The
earliest reference to a more distinctive change was in advertising the
Nambu Type II weapon on the world market. It was referred to as “Machine
Pistol” in conformity with European designation of the particular type of
ordnance and to distinguish it from the semi automatic pistols in title
being produced by the Nambu firm. The term: “Sub Machine Gun” which has
been alternately used in the past several decades was applied by the
Allied military during and after World War II for descriptive purposes to
match the English technical language. It is therefore appropriate to use
the proper title of “Machine Pistol” in these works as intended by the
originators.

REFERENCE: This works is
excerpted from the soon to be published book:

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